This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention that is recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The following abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawing figures are defined as follows:                3GPP third generation partnership project        BS base station        CA carrier aggregation        CC component carrier        CE control element        CQI channel quality indication        CSI RS channel state information reference signal        DL downlink (eNB towards UE)        eNB E-UTRAN Node B (evolved Node B)        EPC evolved packet core        E-UTRAN evolved UTRAN (LTE)        FDMA frequency division multiple access        GNSS global navigation satellite system        ICO in-device coexistence interference avoidance        IMTA international mobile telecommunications association        ITU-R international telecommunication union-radiocommunication sector        LTE long term evolution of UTRAN (E-UTRAN)        LTE-A LTE advanced        MAC medium access control (layer 2, L2)        SU-MIMO single user multiple input multiple output        MM/MME mobility management/mobility management entity        NodeB base station        OFDMA orthogonal frequency division multiple access        O&M operations and maintenance        OOR out of range        PDCP packet data convergence protocol        PHY physical (layer 1, L1)        Rel release        RLC radio link control        RRC radio resource control        RRM radio resource management        SCell serving cell        SGW serving gateway        SC-FDMA single carrier, frequency division multiple access        TM transmission mode        UE user equipment, such as a mobile station, mobile node or mobile terminal        UL uplink (UE towards eNB)        UPE user plane entity        UTRAN universal terrestrial radio access network        
One modern communication system is known as evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN, also referred to as UTRAN-LTE or as E-UTRA). In this system the DL access technique is OFDMA, and the UL access technique is SC-FDMA.
One specification of interest is 3GPP TS 36.300, V8.11.0 (2009-12), 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network (EUTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2 (Release 8), incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This system may be referred to for convenience as LTE Rel-8. In general, the set of specifications given generally as 3GPP TS 36.xyz (e.g., 36.211, 36.311, 36.312, etc.) may be seen as describing the Release 8 LTE system. More recently, Release 9 versions of at least some of these specifications have been published.
FIG. 1 reproduces FIG. 4.1 of 3GPP TS 36.300 V8.11.0, and shows the overall architecture of the EUTRAN system (Rel-8). The E-UTRAN system includes eNBs, providing the E-UTRAN user plane (PDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY) and control plane (RRC) protocol terminations towards the UEs. The eNBs are interconnected with each other by means of an X2 interface. The eNBs are also connected by means of an S1 interface to an EPC, more specifically to a MME by means of a S1 MME interface and to a S-GW by means of a S1 interface (MME/S-GW 4). The S1 interface supports a many-to-many relationship between MMEs/S-GWs/UPEs and eNBs.
The eNB hosts the following functions:
functions for RRM: RRC, Radio Admission Control, Connection Mobility Control, Dynamic allocation of resources to UEs in both UL and DL (scheduling);
IP header compression and encryption of the user data stream;
selection of a MME at UE attachment;
routing of User Plane data towards the EPC (MME/S-GW);
scheduling and transmission of paging messages (originated from the MME);
scheduling and transmission of broadcast information (originated from the MME or O&M); and
a measurement and measurement reporting configuration for mobility and scheduling.
Of particular interest herein are the further releases of 3GPP LTE (e.g., LTE Rel-10) targeted towards future IMTA systems, referred to herein for convenience simply as LTE-Advanced (LTE-A). Reference in this regard may be made to 3GPP TR 36.913, V9.0.0 (2009-12), 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Requirements for Further Advancements for E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced) (Release 9). Reference can also be made to 3GPP TR 36.912 V9.2.0 (2010-03) Technical Report 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Feasibility study for Further Advancements for E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced) (Release 9).
A goal of LTE-A is to provide significantly enhanced services by means of higher data rates and lower latency with reduced cost. LTE-A is directed toward extending and optimizing the 3GPP LTE Rel-8 radio access technologies to provide higher data rates at lower cost. LTE-A will be a more optimized radio system fulfilling the ITU-R requirements for IMT-Advanced while keeping the backward compatibility with LTE Rel-8.
As is specified in 3GPP TR 36.913, LTE-A should operate in spectrum allocations of different sizes, including wider spectrum allocations than those of LTE Rel-8 (e.g., up to 100 MHz) to achieve the peak data rate of 100 Mbit/s for high mobility and 1 Gbit/s for low mobility. It has been agreed that carrier aggregation (CA) is to be considered for LTE-A in order to support bandwidths larger than 20 MHz. Carrier aggregation, where two or more component carriers (CCs) are aggregated, is considered for LTE-A in order to support transmission bandwidths larger than 20 MHz. The carrier aggregation could be contiguous or non-contiguous. This technique, as a bandwidth extension, can provide significant gains in terms of peak data rate and cell throughput as compared to non-aggregated operation as in LTE Rel-8.
A terminal may simultaneously receive one or multiple component carriers depending on its capabilities. A LTE-A terminal with reception capability beyond 20 MHz can simultaneously receive transmissions on multiple component carriers. A LTE Rel-8 terminal can receive transmissions on a single component carrier only, provided that the structure of the component carrier follows the Rel-8 specifications. Moreover, it is required that LTE-A should be backwards compatible with Rel-8 LTE in the sense that a Rel-8 LTE terminal should be operable in the LTE-A system, and that a LTE-A terminal should be operable in a Rel-8 LTE system.
Of some relevance to the discussion herein is 3GPP TR 36.816 v1.0.0 (2010-11) Technical Report 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Networks; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Study on signalling and procedure for interference avoidance for in-device coexistence; (Release 10), incorporated by reference herein.
As is stated in Section 4 of 3GPP TR 36.816 v1.0.0, in order to allow users to access various networks and services ubiquitously an increasing number of UEs are equipped with multiple radio transceivers. For example, a UE may be equipped with LTE, WiFi, and Bluetooth transceivers, and GNSS receivers. One resulting challenge lies in trying to avoid coexistence interference between those collocated radio transceivers. FIG. 3, which reproduces FIG. 4-1 of 3GPP TR 36.816 v1.0.0, shows an example of coexistence interference.
Due to extreme proximity of multiple radio transceivers within the same UE, the transmit power of one transmitter may be much higher than the received power level of another receiver. By means of filter technologies and sufficient frequency separation, the transmit signal may not result in significant interference. But for some coexistence scenarios, e.g., different radio technologies within the same UE operating on adjacent frequencies, current state-of-the-art filter technology may not provide sufficient rejection. Therefore, solving the interference problem by single generic RF design may not always be possible and alternative methods need to be considered.